Boarding right now is too OP

[nightangel]

First just want to say love what you have done the game is a lot better the AI is a lot tougher
I know boarding is a new feature and with will be changes

But boarding right now is too OP

Even with the 10,000 cost for a boarding craft on my first use i stole a IMP star II using the republic

Since i’m both gain a craft and my enemy loses, the boarding craft  it almost paid for itself if the first battle

If I am gaining a capital ship every battle I win i’d probably not need to buy hardly any capital ships 

Playing as the New republic in particular I find its very easy to capture ships

Mon calamari  crusiers  shield regen as tank plus starfighters to target specific part on the ship
When the target is damaged  enough i tell my fighter to fly away and my cruisers tank while the boarding craft come and do thirs
I don’t have to worry about destroying the the target too much   since my cruise have less fire power and with shield regen on even less.

So some suggestions on how to fix it

-    Only allow the capture of frigate craft . This makes the free ships I capture  less overwhelming while still being useful. Particularly if the capture ability cooldown  takes a long time or one shot per battle  To prevent farming. This also makes sense in reality that the single boarding ship can only capture a smaller frigate.   

-   Make the boarding a one shot ability that consumes the boarding craft but reduce the price of the boarding craft .

-   Have a cost based upon the ship you capture representing the repair rearm and recrew of the ship. So an big expensive ship costs more to capture than say a cheap ship.

With both of these suggestions If I am getting a reduced ship cost rather than a free ship it can be more balanced.

[Zardnaar]

The boarding craft is reusable?

[turtle225]

I'll admit that I haven't tried boarding yet.

But even so 10K for a shuttle is huge, I'd rather build an Empress on the border or some of my own ships with that money.

Then there's the boarding itself which takes a bit of effort and has some risk so it should be rewarding.

The farmable nature of it may be a problem as you say and it is something I still need to try. In my current Hunt for Zsinj, the Maldrood keeps jumping onto Terephon with weak-ish fleets that I then stomp with my fleet at Hapes. Adding a boarding shuttle to the mix might be worth it in the long run.

[Guardsman93]

I agree with you that the capture ability is somewhat overpowered. However, I did some experimenting with it in a single era GC, and notice a couple of things.

First, the ability can be used 4 times in a battle. If you are in a battle large enough to utilize all of those attempts, I can guarantee that you will lose at least half of what you capture as the faction you are fighting will attempt to destroy those ships. I would cap it at 3 uses per battle because the capture method is VERY imprecise to start with. More often then not, my capitals would destroy the ship before the shuttles can take it.

Second, as far as old canon goes, which the staff try to stick to as much as possible, making capitals non-capturable would break their dedication to canon. Even in new canon the rebels use boarding parties to take Star Destroyers.

As far as nerfing the ability further, I would make them an era specific technology, only available for eras 1-3 for the New Republic, as capturing ships became less and less common for them to do (iirc). I would give the imperials the ability in Era 4 and 5

[turtle225]

As far as nerfing the ability further, I would make them an era specific technology, only available for eras 1-3 for the New Republic, as capturing ships became less and less common for them to do (iirc). I would give the imperials the ability in Era 4 and 5

Era 2 Remnant makes canonical sense as Thrawn does actually try to steal a bunch of ships from the New Republic.

[Guardsman93]

Ah. I never realized that...that would certainly even the odds on that era then.

[nightangel]

"First, the ability can be used 4 times in a battle. "

Yes i agree I'm probably not going to be able to successfully that many times per battle.

But if focus and can gain 1 Large capital ship per battle that i win  by targeting the small ships first that is still very powerful

Also think about targeting the small carrier type frigates, most of them have poor weapons  and once you defeat their fighter cover would also easy to weaken them for boarding.

Considering the AI often has the smaller fast ships coming in first there  is a decent chance you could capture both  a frigate  and one of the larger captial ships per battle that you win with just one boarding ship.

Add in with smart tactics and ship management capturing 2 capital ships per battle  is certainly possible buy weakening both targets and shifting focus fire .

I can certainly see the republic using this ability its fits with their character  if it was harder for them to get  larger capital ships due to lack of resources

Also To make it fair when fighting the AI i feel it should focus on targeting the boarding craft  first thus requiring you to focus on removing their targets weapons. This would increase the difficulty  in using boarding ships

  Or make one use per battle or some of my other suggestions.